A word in your ear

Do you want to know if "whom" is still used in English? Are you in two minds about using Americanisms like "incentivate"? Emeritus Professor Roly Sussex walks you through the linguistic mindfield, explaining the weird and wonderful aspects of English and many other languages.

'A word in your Ear' with Emeritus Professor Roly Sussex will be in recess until Roly comes back an extended leave break.

If you can't get through the week without your fix of Roly, you can listen back to an archive of Roly's most recent podcasts here.

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Emeritus Professor Roly Sussex has had a longstanding love affair with language. Not just English, he also speaks Russian, French, Polish, Czech, French, German and Latin.

A former Professor of Russian at the University of Melbourne, and of Applied Language Studies at the University of Queensland Roly is spending his 'retirement' as a visiting professor at the Xinjiang Normal University in China and Chair of the State Library of Queensland, oh and taking your calls on the linguistic mindfield that is language.

He has been explaining language and taking your calls ABC radio for some 15 years, and in 2013 he joins Kelly Higgins-Devine for A word in your ear, which is available for podcast each Thursday.

This year, along with talking your calls and explain the odd aspects of our language, Roly will introduce you to special guests to help de-mystify specialist language from a broad range of professions such as medicine, law, gardening, education, politics indigenous language, even the language of pain.

Is there an area of specialist language you would like to hear about? Send us a letter to 'A word in your ear'. 612 ABC radio. GPO Box 9994. Brisbane 4001 or drop us an email.